30 Mar 2015 ZIC Superbike Race 1: Newcomer versus young hopeful

On 21 March 2015, a bright and sunny day in Zhuhai, the 2015 Pan Delta Super Racing Festival Spring Race kicks off with the ZIC Superbike race.

This season we continue to welcome back veteran Huang Shi-Zhao on his Yamaha R1 as well as Dan Kruger of Kawasaki Titanic Team. Huang continues to partner young teammate Li Zheng-Peng, who continues to mature and improve. New to the fold is American Cory West on his one of a kind EBR 1190RS bike.

In the qualifying session in the morning, Cory West already demonstrated he and his bike's potential with a superb 1:35.859 lap. This undoubtedly put pressure on the defendng champions, Yamaha MLT Team. But Li Zheng-Peng responds well and beats his more experienced teammate with a 1:36.949 lap. Huang Shi-Zhao manages a 1:37.921. Dan Kruger suffered a wrist injury and was unable to record a meaningful time.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, Pan Delta's ZIC Superbike race 1 is ready to begin. With warm temperature and nice sunshine, it is a very suitable climate for motor racing. 44 superbikes launch themselves at the start and #64 Cory West and light blue and white EBR 1190RS sprints into the lead, with the Yamaha duo in pursuit with Li Zheng-Peng leading Huang Shi-Zhao.

One lap on and the leading trio has opened up a gap on the rest of the field. At turn 1, Li Zheng-Peng dives down the inside of Cory West and gets ahead as they battle through turn 2. But half a lap later, Cory West uses the power of his EBR to re-take the lead. But Li Zheng-Peng is able to stay in touch. Huang Shi-Zhao is also not far behind them.

On lap 2, #21 Ma Sai's bike falls over at turn 4. The bikes behind him all swerve urgently to avoid him. After the following bikes have gone on, Ma Sai walks away with the help of the track marshals. This session of the track is yellow flagged.

The leading duo continue to ride at a fast pace. On lap 5, a backmarker slows down Cory West's progress and Li Zheng-Peng closes the gap to 0.5 second. But with Cory West's superior straight line speed it is difficult for Li to find a way by. Huang Shi-Zhao has dropped to more than 7 seconds behind and probably will have to settle for third place. Dan Kruger started in 41st position but has made excellent progress and is up to fourth place by lap 8, albeit 15 seconds behind Huang and will unlikely get ahead.

On the last two laps, Cory West and his EBR 1190RS continues to lead and he extends his lead to 2 seconds. Li Zheng-Peng seems to have settled for second place, maybe beating teammate Huang Shi-Zhao is his ambition for this race. In the end, Cory West wins on his EBR 1190RS, as well as taking the fastest lap of the race, 1:36.613. Li Zheng-Peng finishes 2.3 seconds behind, Huang Shi-Zhao takes third place and Dan Kruger finishes fourth after starting from 41st position.

Race results: http://www.zic.com.cn/en/event_list.php?kind=Race%20results